Last year, the West Virginia legislature sought to make concealed carry universal for the State’s citizens. If you are a West Virginia citizen, and you can buy a gun after a background check, you can carry that gun concealed. Open carry was already universal for all gun owners. The governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, vetoed the legislation last year. Well, today, the West Virginia Senate overturned the veto.

Of course, Chicken Little Tomblin warns that we are all less safe now;

“West Virginia’s law enforcement officers have dedicated their lives to keeping us safe and helping us in times of need, and it’s disheartening that the members of the Legislature have chosen not to stand with these brave men and women – putting their safety and the safety of West Virginians at risk. It’s unfortunate that the concerns of officers from every law enforcement branch in the state, including the West Virginia State Police and university campus police officers, have been ignored by today’s action.’’

Of course, there are perks to becoming licensed – if you need to carry outside of West Virginia, you’ll need a CCW permit, also, thanks to the legislature a few years ago, showing a permit to a gun dealer in West Virginia, you don’t have to go through the background check phone call, because you have to have go through a background check when you renew the permit every five years. Of course, there’s not much violent crime here in West Virginia anyway, you know compared to some of our neighbors.

Perhaps a dearth of self-defense weapons should be afforded Mr. Tomblin. Everybody gets to have a gun except his personal bodyguards and security peeps. Obviously, they don’t need guns at all, do they?

Congrats. I grew up in the great state of Vermont and never knew anything about a concealed carry permit until I moved away. Odd that we don’t have much crime up that way.

Every state where concealed carry has been enacted was against the gun banners like the brady bunch that issued dire warnings about blood in the streets and no where has that happened. I bet it doesn’t in WV either.

Up here to Maine, we’ve had universal concealed carry for several months now. Of course, all the gun-grabbers were having a case of the vapors when it was proposed,and went into full meltdown mode when it became law.

Interestingly enough, we haven’t become like the wild west, nor have there been any “gun incidents” as the anti-gun folks warned us about. Instead, no killings. No street shoot outs at high noon, etc.

Despite what people think about Maine, the only form required to buy a gun is the ATF one if you purchase through a licensed firearms dealer. That’s the only time you’ll have to have a background check too. You can buy privately from anyone, anytime.

No registration. No permits. No licenses. VERY low crime rate. The way life should be. 🙂

The bill that was passed, vetoed, and overridden is termed the Constitutional Carry bill. The reason is that the WV Constitution provides: “A person has the right to keep and bear arms for the defense of self, family, home and state, and for lawful hunting and recreational use.” I like how straightforward that reads.

Texas started Open Carry at the beginning of the year, other than when I go into a gun store or range I see no openly carried arms, nor have I had to swerve to avoid all that blood in the streets.

There is a lot of handwringing from the professors at universities – a study done by the schools suggested they somewhat limit extremely provocative discussion, in case some nutcase pulls his gat and starts blazing away. Apparently they think Freud v. Jung or Kant v. Espinoza is far more likely to cause a severe reaction than someone calling you a m-f on the street. Limits academic freedom, you know… unlike when the lefties start having a teacher fired for even using the n-word as an example of racism she never sees, or the university teachers let go because at a party (given by Hispanic students!” they were seen wearing little six-inch sombreros because someone MAY be offended, etc etc. Leftist censorship on campus is reaching Orwellian proportions.

Jonn, I’m curious about the reciprocity implications. It would seem if a state agrees to honor West Virginia’s right to carry law, then simple proof of residence in WV, such as a driver’s license, should suffice if one is stopped in another state.

How does the reciprocity thing work for you Arizonan’s when you’re in other states?

Every state with “Constitutional Carry” (except Vermont) still issues permits/licences to people who want them, specifically for inter-state reciprocity purposes. In a few of those states, the permit also opens up another area or two otherwise off-limits, within the state of issue. (For example, here in AZ, it lets you carry in bars, concealed only.)

Persons from outside the state are treated exactly the same, with one exception being that the Idaho standard permit is not recognized, only their ‘enhanced’ permit. Note that every state has different rules and permit recognition agreements, check before traveling.

And the left has been wailing, and the lack of “blood on the streets” very (not) noticeable, since the mid 80s, when Florida first enacted its shall issue concealed carry laws. Funny, you’d think that even the Libtards would eventually learn from history. Or not.

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We are all military combat veterans and we write primarily from that perspective. Everyone who writes here has a Combat Infantry Badge, a Combat Medic Badge, a Combat Action Badge or a Combat Action Ribbon. We write about issues that matter to combat veterans..read more »